Magazine for machine guns



j. C. R. lVicCRUDDEN. MAGAZINE FOR MACHINE GUNS.

APPLKCATION FILED JUNE4, 192i.

Patented Aug. 8, 1922.

UNITE STA JOHN CHARLES REGINALD MCCRUDDEN, or HURS'I'VILLE, NEAR SYDNEY, NEW

sou'rrr warns, AUSTRALIA.

' MAGAZINE FOR MIACHINE GUNS.

Specification o1 Lmttfil'ii Patent. Pat t d Au 8 192 o i i al application filed June 19, 1920, Serial No. 390,153. Divided and this application filed June 4,

I 1921. Serial No. 475,070.

To all whom it 'mwy concern:

Be it known that I, JOHN CHARLES REGI- NALD MOCR DDEN, a subject of the King of Great Britain and Ireland, residing at Fleurbaix, Haig Street, I-Iurstville, near Sydney, New South ales, Australia, have invented new and useful Improvements in Magazines for Machine Guns,of which the following is a specification.

This invention relates to magazines for machine guns of the automatic recoil type.

The magazine has been devised with a view to augmenting the capacity of the gun for use under exceptional conditions where large magazine capacity and ability for maintaining a sustained fire are called for.

The magazine is shaped as the segment of a circle, and in cross section corresponding with a conventional type of small arm mag azine in which the cartridges are contained in laterally staggered order and are retained by a lip at the magazine mouth until with drawn successively by the bolt action. Its novel and distinguishing features consist in slotting the inner wall of the magazine casing to accommodate an oscillating arm which carries the platform, in applylng ad vance movement to the platform by a sprmg acting on said oscillating arm, and 1n suspending and latching mechanism by which the magazine and its contents are detachably held on the gun structure in such a manner that their removal and replacement may be effected with great facility and rapidity.

In the accompanying drawings Fig. 1 1s a fragmentary side elevational view of a gun with the magazine set in the throat 1n the breech;

Fig. 2 is a longitudinal sectional elevation showing the mounting of the magazine and the cartridge feed mechanism therein and Fig. 3 is a transverse section on the plane 3-3 Fig. 2.

The magazine 1 is a segmental boX identical in transverse section with standard service type magazine for shoulder arms and is designed to carry sixty or more small arm service cartridges of .303 or like standard dimensions. It is inserted at its delivery end 2 up into the feed throat 3 in the breech body. Its upper position is determined by its fitting into the pocket in said throat as in the case of an ordinary service rifle, and 1t 18 latched in position by a spring latch a which engages a hook staple 5 behind the throat 3. audits contents is sustained by carrier arms 6-7 which are supported on a stud hanger 8, said stud hanger being adapted to slide on a fixed carrier pin 9. This pin projects The weight of the magazine 1 forwardly from a collar 10 .which is fixed on the butt collar 11 of the radiator which is a tlght fit on the shoulder on the rear end of the barrel 12.

In this magazine, taper-shaped cartridges are packed so that they set in laterally staggered order (the magazine width being greater than the diameter of one cartridge, but less than twice a cartridge diameter), the cartridge at the mouth of the magazine being lightly held by the inturned lips 13 on the cheeks of the magazine 2 but so that when the bolt'14 is moved forwardly, its fore end takes behind the base rim of the cartridge and slides it endwise out of the magazine into the barrel chamber; as each cartridge in turn is thus slid out of the magazine, the next cartridge in order is held in position in the magazine mouth for delivery into the barrel chamber in the next forward movement of the bolt.

The pivot pin 15 supported by the stud hanger 8 carries the feed arm 16 which extends through a slot 17 and acting through the back spring 18 in the magazine supports and moves the platform 19 therein. The arm 16 is swung forwardly by a coiled wire spring 20 and functions through the platform to urge the cartridges in the magazine forward towards its mouth, whence they are taken one by one by the bolt action and delivered into the barrel chamber. This system of construction of the magazine and its mounting offers a positive advantage for re-loading rapidly in action without disturbing the lay of the gun, as the gunner, While still retaining the gun in position, may in a one-hand movement, release the latch 4 swing the magazine on the pin 15 and slide it forward, thus bringing the hanger 8 off the pin 9. An empty magazine is thus detached by an instant dextrous movement, and by a reverse movement a full magazine inserted. Continuity of firing is therefore interrupted only for a period of a second or two when a magazine I is exhausted; and as each magazine contains avery large number of cartridges, the gun is thus qualified in a special degree for repeated prolonged bursts of firing, Which.

very frequently is a consideration ofmaj or importance.

What I claim as my invention and desire to secure by Letters Patent is A machine gun magazine-comprisinga segmental box casing adapted to carry a largenumber of loose tapered cartridges in staggered order and to reclprocate -W1th the: gun barrel, a slot the inner curved face; of said casing, an externally pivoted feed arm extending through said slot", a spring controlling said feed arm, a platform carried by said feed arm',- car-rier arm's adapted to support said casing, and-means oitsaid carrier arms for rapidly detaching the magazine from the gun. a

2] In a machine gun magazine as set forth V in claim'1','a spring latch, a hook staple, a I qix'ed carrierpin, a slot'in" the gun body and barrel casing, and a stud hanger adapted to he. slid forwardly in said slot on said pin When said spring latch is released.

3. A achinev gun magazine ofbox cas type, but 'segmentalin shape, havingit innenrimslottedwto accommodate a swing arm, a carrier frame for said magazine including the pivot on which said swing arm n is mounted, acarrier lug through vWhich-said pivotpasses, said:lugslid-ably seated on a bracket fixed o'n the gunqbody, a spring Q adapted to swing-said arm towardsithe: magazine mouth, and a fastening latch I on the 

